The Smurfs

There are just some things so smurfy that we couldn’t imagine smurfing through the 80s without them.

And The Smurfs was just about as smurfy as they come.

They first smurfed onto our TV sets in Smurftember 1981, and they lasted straight through until the end of the smurf-tastic decade.

The original little blue guys (and gal) were created by Belgian cartoonist Peyo in the late 50s. It took more than 20 years, though, for them to enter our consciousness… not until NBC president Fred Silverman noticed his smurfy daughter playing with a Smurf toy.

And boom! Just like that, we got the biggest and smurfiest Saturday morning cartoon of the 80s.

Of course we all know their names–– Papa Smurf, Jokey Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Lazy Smurf, Sloppy Smurf… well, you get the smurfing idea.

And every Saturday morning at 9am, we were there in Smurf Village, following their smurfy adventures.

Sure, today we may wonder how an entire Smurf civilization was populated with only one female on hand (We’re thinking Smurfette may have had a secret identity–– you know… Slutty Smurf!) but hey, we were young and didn’t really think about those things back then.

All we know is that The Smurfs were the smurfiest thing since smurfed bread.